Hardware in Orbit: Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a school bus-sized telescope orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 353 miles. After its launch in 1990, Hubble made news for returning out-of-focus images, the result of spherical aberration in its primary mirror that was scattering the light about.
Hubble has since been serviced five times, beginning in 1993 with a mission to install COSTAR (the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement), which corrected the telescope's fuzzy vision. The last servicing mission was flown in May of 2009, when space shuttle Atlantis replaced two failed instruments and installed two new ones.
Over the course of 21 years, Hubble has returned hundreds of images of the cosmos around Earth, deepening scientists' understanding of the universe around us. The telescope is run 24 hours a day by four flight teams based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
More on Hubble
@CNNLightYears on Twitter
People in Orbit
Expedition 36 Commander
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Contributors
-
Elizabeth Landau
Writer/Producer -
Sophia Dengo
Senior Designer
Send Rabbi,, priest,, moslem and who else and all the jokes wth them..We should send a robit instead..
i want to prank NASA
Your article stated 21 years in space and hundreds of photos? After 21 years I would think it should be thousands of photos. Return on investment? Don't get me wrong. I am very glad (even with the problems) of this program. I will also continue to fully support any future space exploration. I just thought it was odd that we only received hundreds of photos, not thousands, after 21 years.
my god it was JUST a typo man give it A BREAK
great pics!
Try this http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/:
FUDGE THIS IS COOL!!
I would really like to see some pictures that hubble took. Thanks!
blow it up and pu t a man up there with a telescope
What about Spitzer? It's been in space over 8 years now and doing fabulous work! Please add it to the 'Hardware in Orbit' section.
Also, please include links to their science sites!
Thank you!